The unofficial visit would seem to be one of the more innocuous elements of the college basketball recruiting process, about as threatening as a cafeteria lunch and as boring as taking a walk through an empty weight room.

And that is pretty much what an unofficial visit is.

Through the past decade, however, as scouting became more sophisticated and the identification of elite prospects accelerated, the unofficial visit became the reserve currency of the basketball recruiting process. Only seniors could make “official visits,” and programs hardly could afford to wait that long to show off their assets with so many great talents choosing their college destination as sophomores and juniors.

So, as often happens with recruiting, the unofficial visit became a dubious enterprise.

The NCAA suspended Kentucky’s John Wall two games of his freshman season over the financing of his unofficial visits. Unofficial visits were part of the package that got Kansas’ Josh Selby suspended for nine. Now, you’re hearing the same rumbling regarding Shabazz Muhammad, who has already missed UCLA’s trip to China, and the NCAA’s decision to visit the high school Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel attended.

Given all of that, it is depressing that it took so long for the NCAA membership to figure out the best way to put an end to the nonsense was to allow players to make official visits -- paid for the school, with each athlete allowed to make only five total -- as high school juniors.

From the time college basketball adopted the early letter-of-intent period, which occurred more than a quarter-century ago, the rules restricting official visits to athletes in their senior years of high school began to decay toward obsolescence. It was virtually impossible for a high school senior to squeeze in five officials before the November signing date. A large percentage of recruits made their college choices long before they were allowed to make an official.

However, the rule change that will allow basketball players to make official visits after Jan. 1 of their junior years only went into effect just three weeks ago.

It is a significant step in cleaning up another part of the business that had been corrupted.

It’s not enough, though.

The next advance in this department: “Get rid of all unofficial visits,” Kentucky coach John Calipari told Sporting News on Thursday. “It’s not fair to the kid who doesn’t have the means to make all these trips.”

Obviously, it would be impossible and undesirable to declare that athletes are not allowed to visit campuses that are open to the general public. An athlete shouldn’t lose a bit of his freedom merely because he’s a targeted recruit.

It would not be at all complicated, however, to declare that coaches no longer could arrange to have a recruit visit campus unofficially and could not have contact with him during a campus tour. The recruit would not be allowed to see the areas that typically are reserved for varsity athletes: Locker rooms, training areas, video suites.

If an athlete wanted to visit a campus in the same manner as a prospective journalism major or pre-med student, he could contact the admissions office and arrange the same tour as everyone else. I’ve been on a few of those with my nephews. They were all to universities with significant Division I basketball programs, and none of them showed off the players’ lounge.

As it stands now, the college basketball prospect whose family has money can travel in grand style -- being hosted by famous coaches, comparing every school’s practice facility to the one he just saw and the one he’ll see next. The prospect of limited means might be able to see the schools in his immediate area, but if he is being pursued by out-of-state programs he might be stuck in the dilemma of either accepting a virtual “visit” through the school’s web site or receiving assistance from a “third party” to make an unofficial.

Exactly how much of the investigation of Muhammad and Noel is focused on the issue of unofficial visits is impossible to say because the NCAA rarely issues precise comments regarding ongoing investigations.

Noel never made an unofficial visit to Kentucky but did travel to other campuses. The unofficial visits in question with Muhammad reportedly were to Duke and North Carolina, not UCLA, where he plans to play.

If the change in the official visit rule had been in place, however, it’s possible none of this would be an issue. It has taken far too long for the NCAA to see clearly on this matter. Unofficially, Jan. 1 can’t come soon enough.